Break in weather helps contain bushfires

More than 100 bushfires are still burning across New South Wales but a change in weather has allowed the damaging fires in the state's north-west to be contained, as Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons explains from Coonabarabran.

Transcript

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LEIGH SALES: Now to the disastrous fires tearing through parts of northern NSW.

Firefighters have been using a break in the weather today to try to bring a huge bushfire in Warrumbungle Shire under control.

Forty homes and dozens of outbuildings have already been destroyed and the fires have devastated more than 40,000 hectares of national park.

Today the state's Rural Fire Service chief, Shane Fitzsimmons, toured the scene to assess the damage and the continuing efforts. He joined me from Coonabarabran.

Shane Fitzsimmons, what sort of progress are the fire fighters making?

SHANE FITZSIMMONS, RFS CHIEF: They're making significant progress but you've got to appreciate that this fire ground is more than 100 kilometres around the perimeter.

As a matter of fact, approximates are that you could be looking up to close to 200 kilometres of fire edge that needs to be dealt with.

It's burning across a landscape that is in the order of 40,000 hectares. It's a significant area that needs to be dealt with and there's a lot of very active, difficult fire behaviour going on and already, as we speak, there are units still working to protect property from the impact of fire.

LEIGH SALES: How many properties are still at risk?

SHANE FITZSIMMONS: There would be dozens right across the geography but already, as we were talking, there's at least two or three particular homes that are the subject of attention at the moment with one of the flare ups on the eastern side of this fire.

LEIGH SALES: Are any people who have been evacuated able to return to their homes yet?

SHANE FITZSIMMONS: No, it is too dangerous.

We had the opportunity to get up to the observatory and travel out along the Timor Road.

There is significant damage. There's still a deal of danger. You're talking about falling timber, falling trees, you're talking about rocks, you're talking about power lines down across roadways - lots of work still going on to make access safe and to restore basics like power and the like.

So still a very dangerous, hostile environment and clearly there is an appreciation for the anxiety and the frustration for those that simply want to get back and see what they've got left, but we do need to make sure we maintain that safety focus.

LEIGH SALES: Is the community handling that anxiety OK at the moment?

SHANE FITZSIMMONS: Look, I think the community is doing extremely well.

There are clearly those that have suffered huge loss, extraordinary loss, a lifetime of possessions have been lost.

But I think there is an understanding, there is indeed a pragmatism, as you would expect in rural communities such as Coonabarabran, and that's on show right across the fire ground.

Plenty of the firefighters out there themselves have suffered loss in their own property or indeed they've got neighbours or family and friends that have suffered loss. So this is a community that really knows what's beset them and they will work together as you would expect to make sure they do things as safely and as effectively as they can.

LEIGH SALES: Even for those fire fighters who have not lost everything, they have been working to save homes that have been lost.

I presume exhaustion is setting in.

What sort of physical state and emotional state are the fire fighters in?

SHANE FITZSIMMONS: Fire fighting always has an emotional toll.

You've got the natural anxiety and adrenalines that are attached with the fire fighting effort but fire fighters, particularly in community areas, in their local community, they know who they're looking after, they know often who they're seeking to protect and importantly they know who they've not been able to save the property for and often, as we've seen across the Coonabarabran region, a number of them have lost their own homes and their own property while they were out saving somebody else's.

LEIGH SALES: Temperatures are going to soar very high again by the end of the week.

Is the risk then going to be as bad as it has been recently?

SHANE FITZSIMMONS: Leigh, we're expecting - and it's early days yet of course - but we are expecting fairly widespread geographic area of NSW to be the subject of severe fire danger ratings as we come into Friday.

That's going to be predicated on the expectation that we're going to see 40 odd degree temperatures across much of the state moving right out towards the coast, very dry conditions dragging that hot, dry air down out of central Australia, but also we're going to see a return to strong winds, regularly at 40 to 50 kilometres an hour and gusting 70 kilometres plus and beyond that.

So it is going to be a difficult day. We're certainly not looking at the conditions of last Tuesday but you don't need conditions of last Tuesday to see bad fire behaviour and the potential for damage and loss in fire-affected communities.

LEIGH SALES: Shane Fitzsimmons, thank you very much and good luck to you and your teams.